This is good news, glad tidings!

This signifies that the earth, the base of Satan's rebellion, was shaken by the Lord's resurrection.

Christ resurrected on the first day of the week. This signifies that His resurrection brought a new start with a new age for the kingdom of the heavens. See note John 20:1^1b.

The same Greek word is used in Luke 23:54.

The constitution of the kingdom was decreed on a mountain (see note Matt. 5:1¹), the heavenly King's transfiguration took place on a high mountain (see note Matt. 17:1^2c), and the prophecy concerning this age was given on a mountain (see note Matt. 24:3^1b). Now, for God's economy of the New Testament the disciples needed to go to the mountain again. Only on the high level of a mountain can we see clearly the New Testament economy.

The lie concerning the Lord's resurrection was widely spread, as were the rumors concerning His followers and His church after His resurrection (Acts 24:5-9; 25:7).

Evil religionists always persuade evil politicians to perpetrate falsehood.

This word from the mouth of the religious leaders was a bare lie, indicating the lowest standard and falsehood of their religion.

See note Matt. 28:7^1a. So in v. 16.

See note John 20:17^2a.

Implying a greeting.

This took place after the Lord appeared to Mary the Magdalene (John 20:14-18).

With fear because of the great earthquake (v. 2) and with great joy because of the Lord's resurrection.

The heavenly King began His ministry from Galilee of the Gentiles (Matt. 4:12-17), not from Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jewish religion; after His resurrection He again went to Galilee, not to Jerusalem. This strongly indicates that the resurrected heavenly King had fully abandoned Judaism and had initiated a new age for God's New Testament economy.

Or, hesitated, wavered.

Like baptizing people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which is mentioned in the foregoing verse, teaching the believers to observe all that the Lord has commanded is for the discipling of all the nations (v. 19).

The heavenly King is Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). Here He promised that in His resurrection He will be with us all the days, with all authority, until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age. Hence, wherever we are gathered into His name, He is in our midst (Matt. 18:20).

Among the four Gospels the Lord's ascension is recorded only in Mark (Mark 16:19) and Luke (Luke 24:51). John testifies that the Lord, as the Son of God, even God Himself, is life to His believers. As such, He can never and would never leave them. Matthew proves that He, as Emmanuel, is the heavenly King who is with His people continuously until He comes back. Hence, in John and Matthew the Lord's ascension is not mentioned.

The end of this age, which is the time of His coming (parousia).

In His divinity, as the only begotten Son of God, the Lord had authority over all. However, in His humanity, as the Son of Man and the King of the heavenly kingdom, authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after His resurrection.

Because all authority was given to Him (v. 18), the heavenly King sent His disciples to disciple all the nations. They go with His authority.

This is to make the heathen the kingdom people for the establishing of His kingdom, which is the church, even today, on this earth.

Baptism brings the repentant people out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may become the kingdom people. John the Baptist's recommending ministry began with a preliminary baptism, a baptism by water only. Now, after the heavenly King had accomplished His ministry on earth, had passed through the process of death and resurrection, and had become the life-giving Spirit, He charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect, whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible baptism by the Spirit, the visible baptism by water is vain, and without the visible baptism by water, the invisible baptism by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. Not long after the Lord charged the disciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), the Jewish part on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and the Gentile part in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based on this, the disciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38) not only into water but also into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (v. 19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered a tomb in which the baptized ones' old history is ended. Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, and since Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) and the Triune God eventually is one with the Body of Christ, to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ is to do just one thing: on the negative side, to terminate their old life, and on the positive side, to germinate them with new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord here baptizes people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.

Into indicates union, as in Rom. 6:3 and Gal. 3:27. The same Greek word is used in Acts 8:16; 19:5 and 1 Cor. 1:13, 15. To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.

There is one name for the Divine Trinity. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is.

Matthew and John are the two books in which the Divine Trinity is revealed more fully than in all the other books of the Scripture, that God's chosen people may participate in and enjoy Him. For our experience of life, John unveils the mystery of the Godhead in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, especially in chs. 14—16; whereas for the constituting of the kingdom, Matthew discloses the reality of the Divine Trinity by giving one name for all three. In the opening chapter of Matthew, the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18), Christ (the Son — Matt. 1:18), and God (the Father — Matt. 1:23) are present for the producing of the man Jesus (Matt. 1:21), who, as Jehovah the Savior and God with us, is the very embodiment of the Triune God. In ch. 3 Matthew presents a scene in which the Son was standing in the water of baptism under the opened heaven, the Spirit like a dove descended upon the Son, and the Father spoke out of the heavens to the Son (Matt. 3:16-17). In ch. 12 the Son, in the person of man, cast out demons by the Spirit to bring in the kingdom of God the Father (Matt. 12:28). In ch. 16 the Father revealed the Son to the disciples for the building of the church, which is the life pulse of the kingdom (Matt. 16:16-19). In ch. 17 the Son entered into transfiguration (Matt. 17:2) and was confirmed by the Father's word of delight (Matt. 17:5), bringing about a miniature display of the manifestation of the kingdom (16:28). Eventually, in the closing chapter, after Christ as the last Adam had passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection to charge them to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Divine Trinity. Later, in the Acts and the Epistles it is disclosed that to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is to baptize them into the name of Christ (Acts 8:16; 19:5), and that to baptize them into the name of Christ is to baptize them into Christ the person (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), because Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and He, having become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), is available at any time and in any place for people to be baptized into. According to Matthew, being baptized into the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is for the constituting of the kingdom of the heavens. Unlike an earthly society, the heavenly kingdom cannot be formed with human beings of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50); it can be constituted only with people who have been immersed into the union with the Triune God and who have been established and built up with the Triune God, who has been wrought into them.